[Seminar] Environmental Gene Regulatory Influence Networks in Rice

Seminar

Title: Environmental Gene Regulatory Influence Networks in Rice

Speaker: Michael Purugganan

Affilliation: Silver Professor; Professor of Biology; Dean for Science, Faculty of Arts and Science, at the New York University, USA

Host: M. Margarida Oliveira - Plant Functional Genomics Lab, GPlantS Unit

Research interests:

Purugganan Laboratory at the Center for Genomics and Systems Biology at New York University. Research in the laboratory is focused on evolutionary, ecological and functional genomics of plants. Active projects in the lab include (1) the Environmental Gene Regulatory Interaction Network (EGRINs) project which aims to characterize gene regulatory networks involved in the rice stress response. (2) There are also multiple active QTL mapping projects in the lab which aim to identify genes controlling variability in salt tolerance among rice varieties. (3) A third major line of research is characterization of the molecular basis of natural variation in Arabidopsis flowering time. (4) Finally, we have an ongoing interest in the process of plant domestication and are currently using whole genome sequencing to understand the origin and diversification of date palm (Phoenix dactylifera) and rice.

The work in the laboratory is funded by the National Science Foundation, the NYUAD Research Institute, and the Zegar Family Foundation

Short CV:

Filipino-American biologist and former journalist, Dr. Michael Purugganan is the Silver Professor of Biology at New York University (NYU). He received his B.S. in Chemistry from the University of the Philippines (1985), an M.A. from Columbia University (1986) and a Ph.D. in Botany with a Global Policy minor at the University of Georgia (1993). After obtaining his Ph.D., he did postdoctoral research as an Alfred P. Sloan Molecular Evolution Fellow at the University of California in San Diego, studying the evolution of development (1993-1995). Dr. Purugganan is a leader in the field of evolutionary and ecological genomics and his work focuses on identifying the molecular basis for evolutionary adaptations that occur in nature. Prior to joining the NYU faculty in 2006, he was the William Neal Reynolds Distinguished Professor of Genetics at North Carolina State University, where he also won the Outstanding Faculty Research Award and the Sigma Xi Research Prize. He is the recipient of an Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Young Investigator Award, a Guggenheim Fellowship, is a Kavli Fellow, and in 2005 was elected a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Dr. Purugganan is on the editorial boards of the journals Genome Biology and Evolution, Molecular Ecology, Trends in Plant Science and the Annual Review of Ecology, Evolution and Systematics.